Everybody needs good neighbours....

Peas and Rice (Cockney rhyming slang for Jesus Christ!) we've got another blog on! It's only just over a week since our last blog; anyone would think we were travelling again (more on this later). Well we've moved into our new house, it's not ours really it's our landlords but it might as well be ours, and we've just about settled in. The aerial man has just left after moving our satellite dish for the 2nd time in a month, again more on this later.

I think we're both getting a bit sick of a) renting and b) moving as it's the 2nd move within 12 months, more than a lot of people have moved in the last 12 years! It's not the actual being in different places that bothers us (or me anyway!) as we both love seeing different places as you probably know, if we didn't this blog probably wouldn't even exist. No, it's the upheaval of everything we own, and a few things we don't, (sorry about taking that frying pan, I really did think it was ours!) from one place to another. When you're travelling, moving everything you own from one place to another, is a piece of p*ss as it's on your back, but when you've been living in a flat for 12 months you tend to accumulate a bit more clobber. TV, iMac, Wardrobe, sofas, guitar(s), clothes, etc., etc. We haven't got nearly as much stuff as most people but it's still a chore. We had to get the company who made our wardrobe to come and dismantle it and get a separate "man with van" to move all the other shi... sorry stuff. Then there's all the bills, accounts, magazine subscriptions to change address details over , the list goes on and on. Anyway, the amount of times we have moved over the last 10 years is well into double figures. We both worked out that between us we've lived in about 20 places in the last 10 years. When I say places I mean different abodes, rather than different towns/villages/hamlets! So you'd expect us to be naturals at moving. Well to be honest, it's probably a less stressful experience than some people have , but still a pain.

So onto the Satellite dish. When we moved in there was an existing satellite dish on the front of the house which we plugged into our Freesat and everything was dandy. Then after a couple of days of pouring rain suddenly the picture went. And I mean completely went! Couldn't even get Come Dine with Me on More4. So, I asked around and got Al's mate from work, or rather Al from work's mate. He came round one evening tested different cables, different positions (for the satellite dish!) and to cut a long story short, we settled on a place about the kitchen window.

All was going well, until our neighbour (SHE IS FRENCH!!!!) returned from a trip away (to FRANCE) and knocked on the door. After the pleasantries exchanged; "hello I'm your new neighbour", "Hello I'm Matt", "Hello I'm rfaiurehriuhf (some French name)", "there's a problem with your satellite dish", "No there isn't, Al's friend came round to fix it, look it's a brilliant picture, come in I'll show you....", "Yes there is a problem , it's on my wall","...look the picture on HD is brilli.....WHAT???? YOU'RE WALL? SILLY FRENCH BAS.....". And it turned out that the upstairs of the house, doesn't match the downstairs of the house and our satellite dish was about 3mm (actually about 18 inches) on her side of the house. I tried reasoning with her and said "well it's not really doing any harm though is it? It's only a satellite dish" but apparently it is a problem and would you mind moving it please because I'm trying to sell my house, and I'm sure the kind of people who want to buy my house wouldn't want a satellite dish on their wall. So I had to get Al's mate back round and he moved it to the opposite end of the house, as far away as possible from the French side of the house!

Now I know that neighbours are extremely petty when it comes to territory but I did think she was being a bit over the top! I don't know whether it is the French blood as I know they are suckers for bureaucracy or the fact that she is just an arse but it's all sorted now. To be honest I would probably have been p*ssed of if someone had put a satellite dish on my wall whilst I was away on holiday but I like to think that I'd be reasonable once the initial shock had wore off and realised that it was a genuine mistake! Oh well!

Anyway, I mentioned travelling at the start of this and we're off on our hols again, to Askrigg in the Yorkshire Dales. It's really close to Hawes where they make Wensleydale Cheese (Oh No Grommit , it's the wrong trousers!) and Black Sheep Ale. So you can guess what we'll be doing for the majority of the week. We're heading off on Saturday morning and hopefully by Saturday afternoon will be troughing on Wensleydale and swigging Black Sheeps'

So there you go , there's a good end to this blog, hopefully I'll have some non-French related stories to tell you in a week or so.

Au Revoir!

p.s. Oh yeah I forgot, we live in Brough now, pronounced Brough. It's about 8 miles from Hull right next to the Humber Bridge! It's a lot more rural here, although "The Avenues" is also pretty rural this time of year what with all the trees out.